The opening week of the women’s volleyball Nations League ends on Sunday (7). The Brazilian team, one of the hosts of the first sequence of games of the tournament, faces Italy, current Olympic champion and leader of the world ranking, at Ginásio Nilson Nelson, in Brasília, at 2:30 pm (local time).
In the first phase of the Nations League, which brings together 18 teams, the teams play 12 games in three different venues, with four matches in each. In addition to hosting this first week’s duels, Brazil will have clashes in Ankara (Türkiye) and Osaka (Japan). The eight best campaigns go to the final phase, in Macau, an administrative region belonging to China.
The duel against the Italians will be Brazil’s fourth and last in this sequence at home, in which the team led by José Roberto Guimarães has accumulated three victories in three games. The most recent on Saturday afternoon (6), against Bulgaria, by 3 sets to 0, with splits of 25/23, 25/17 and 25/13, in front of approximately nine thousand fans in the gymnasium of the federal capital.
The opposite Tainara, with 14 points (11 attack and three aces – when the player serves and the opponents do not prevent the ball from hitting the court), was Brazil’s main name in the match. Central players Júlia Kudiess and Diana also stood out, each reaching the mark of one hundred blocking points in the history of the League of Nations, played since 2018.
Previous victories were conquered over Holland and the Dominican Republic, last Wednesday (3) and Thursday (4), both by 3 sets to 1. The Brazilians are chasing an unprecedented title, after three runners-up finishes, in 2021, 2022 and 2025. Last year, the setback in the decision went precisely to Italy.
